ANDREW PIERCE: Natalie Elphicke's small boats U-turn is a blatant betrayal
No one has been more scornful of Labour’s feeble plans to stop the boats than the former Tory MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke.
Regular readers of this column will recall how, last year, she mocked up a picture of Sir Keir Starmer standing by a door which bore a ‘Welcome’ sign and opened on to a beach in her constituency.
‘Labour does not want to stop the small boats,’ she said. ‘This is Labour’s small-boat policy: Backing people smugglers over the British people.’
But since she defected to Labour in May, Ms Elphicke has undergone such a remarkable conversion that she has been deployed by Starmer to back his stance on illegal migration. In a letter sent to tens of thousands of homes in the Red Wall seats that feel most strongly about the issue, she wrote: ‘As the former Conservative MP for Dover I have witnessed his [Rishi’s] failure first-hand.
No one has been more scornful of Labour’s feeble plans to stop the boats than the former Tory MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke
This is an extraordinary U-turn from someone who was a vocal champion of deporting migrants to have their claims processed in Rwanda — a policy which Starmer will scrap
‘I could not in good conscience represent a party that was failing British people on such an important issue.’
This is an extraordinary U-turn from someone who was a vocal champion of deporting migrants to have their claims processed in Rwanda — a policy which Starmer will scrap.
Elphicke’s willingness to perform such a shameless about-turn is renewing speculation that she will be rewarded by Labour for her treachery with a well-paid job at a housing quango. In fact, my mole at Labour HQ said: ‘If I was a Tory I would bet on it.’
Baddiel's age-old lack of political ambition
David Baddiel provides a personal take on the two elderly men who are desperately fighting to be the next occupant of the White House.
‘Frankly, I don’t know why anybody of Biden or Trump’s age would want to be President,’ says the comic.
‘I’m 60 and I don’t even want to go upstairs.’
David Baddiel provides a personal take on the two elderly men who are desperately fighting to be the next occupant of the White House
Lord Kinnock, who led Labour to two defeats, concedes that his party is ahead in the polls because of dissatisfaction with the Tories rather than affection for Sir Keir Starmer. ‘Since the human being first cast the vote in Ancient Greece, the main factor determining electoral outcomes is: “Let’s get rid of these b******s”, rather than “Let’s vote for the perfect alternative”,’ he says.
Unusually for a prime minister, Rishi Sunak has been campaigning in his own Yorkshire constituency, where he is defending a 27,000 majority. If he fails to hold on, Sunak would be the first PM in history to lose his seat. But he wouldn’t be the first party leader to be toppled in recent history: Lib Dem Jo Swinson lost her seat in 2019.
A curious complaint from former Tory deputy PM Michael Heseltine: ‘I’ve not been asked to do any campaigning by the Conservative Party so I’m not doing any.’ But why would any candidate want him on the doorstep? He has criticised every Tory leader since William Hague.
Deception on the doorstep
One-time Labour Home Secretary and postie Alan Johnson recalls pounding the streets during an election campaign.
A couple of what he thought were ‘floating voters’ engaged him in a lengthy conversation — before revealing they were diehard Lib Dems who wanted to keep him occupied for a while.
This talent for deception is more pronounced among the elderly, says Johnson: ‘All party workers know that, when encountering an ancient supporter on the doorstep, the opportunity should be taken to offer a lift to the polling station on election day.
‘The journeys often ended with an octogenarian wheezing with suppressed hilarity as they revealed that they were from the opposite camp, determined to waste the resources of the party they badly wanted to fail.’